Santorum coming to LV to raise campaign funds

Wednesday

Aug 24, 2011 at 10:10 AMAug 24, 2011 at 10:11 AM

MCT Information Services

WASHINGTON -- Presidential candidate Rick Santorum will raise money and campaign next week in the state where he got his start in politics and had a successful 16-year political career before voters ousted him from public office in 2006.

Republican Santorum will spend three days in Pennsylvania, including a stop in the Lehigh Valley, next Monday through Wednesday, a campaign spokesman confirmed.

Santorum also is expected to attend an event with freshman U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-11th District, whose district includes Carbon and Monroe counties. Barletta's campaign office said details are still being worked out.

While Santorum may have lost his U.S. Senate seat by an overwhelming 18 points to Democrat Bob Casey less than five years ago, Pennsylvania is still his turf and the best place for Santorum to raise money.

More than a third of the $582,100 Santorum has raised through June 30 for his presidential run came from Pennsylvanians.

Of that, Robert B. Eberwein, a self-employed psychologist from Allentown, gave $250, and Rev. John Conte, a Catholic priest from Bethlehem, gave $404, Santorum's financial disclosure reports show.

Santorum's long-shot campaign got a boost in Iowa earlier this month when he placed fourth in a straw poll there, a placement he's since touted as proof that he can compete with bigger names like Michele Bachmann or Ron Paul for the more socially conservative elements of the Republican Party.

But even with the low-cost, retail-style campaigning Santorum has been doing in places like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, he needs to beef up his campaign coffers to get him through the fall to the 2012 winter primaries. Pennsylvania's primary is not until April 24.

As of now, Santorum ranks at the bottom of the pack of Republican hopefuls. An aggregate of national polls calculated by Real Clear Politics puts Santorum at just 1.8 percent. The only other candidate below 5 percent is former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.

As a result, neither was invited to participate in a Labor Day forum in South Carolina being organized by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who has yet to pick a favorite in the race for the 2012 GOP nomination.

DeMint's group invited former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and others in the GOP field, plus two who are not: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.